Metro bank - new customer review

innovate

Hazzanet wrote: »

Would be nice...

We'd just get some Marketing hot air

Nessie23

scgf wrote: »

No it is absolutely not. Often you think you've got through to the 'bank' but are actually talking to an overflow call centre where operatives email the 'bank' about your problem.

What did it for me was when the operative dismissed my complaint about my debit card being rejected on a US shopping site saying I needed to have a US $ account to buy from a US web site.

Those of you follwing the threads on here will know that I was a fervent admirer of Metro Bank and now I wouldn't recommend them to anybody. Bunch of amateurs.

Out of interest when was that?

I have noticed that over the last few weeks/months they have finally opened their 24hour service. So hopefully they are not using their "overflow" centre now.

innovate

Nessie23 wrote: »

I have noticed that over the last few weeks/months they have finally opened their 24hour service. So hopefully they are not using their "overflow" centre now.

Was there a Press release / customer email shot about this?

veganline

I've read the first 3 pages of this thread & last page - hope OK to miss the rest.

Metrobank reminded me of the housing associations that sorry parts of the hostel & social work industries had to suffer as managers a few years ago. Housing associations could have signs saying things equivalent to "no stupid bank rules", translating as

"we are intellectually lazy to the point of dishonesty; we say different things to different people without any consequence in our minds. Let's talk about the new logo and how to get rid of troublemakers. We are against silly rules but we have silly rules. Simple. No contradiction. What can we have a meeting about next? Is it the logo or getting rid of troublemakers?"

As a result, nobody wants to work for long on the front line and those who remain are good at avoiding blame for their boss's faults.

I rang to set-up the simplest smallest credit account for an unregistered charity.

I needed a governing document, according to the phone call.

After a chatty interview in Chiswick with someone who talked to her colleague out of earshot, she told me that I needed an account of money, not a governing document (which she showed no sign of reading).

I visited a second time with a £50 paypal account, and got the colleague.
This mind-blowing second visit was beyond the authority of front-line staff to deal with: you can fob-off once, but how twice? The man apologised for his head office which he said had changed the rules in an un-specified way. He copied, or pretended to copy, the documents I had, and lied that the head office would get in touch. And for all anybody knows who is reading this, I turned-up in dark glasses carrying a trombone case and had blood stains on my hands, but he didn't mention that so I suppose his staff handbook gave him no discretion to decide who to take-on, but, at the same time, did.

I can't complain too much because I have worked for organisations like this myself, but suggest that Metrobank are good for

• London cash handling & parking with long opening hours
• possibly travel with their card (I haven't read the full thread)
• reducing fraudulent direct debits & standing orders on bank account details given to the public. Their personal basic bank account does not allow direct debits or standing orders, so that solves the problem...

That could be why Funding Knight use Metrobank for inbound BACS payments. If you want interest, try organisations on p2pmoney.co.uk including Funding Kight, Zopa, Thincats, and FundingCircle.
That's it!
John

innovate

veganline wrote: »

.....Their personal basic bank account does not allow direct debits or standing orders....

I am no big fan of Metrobank myself, but surely this is incorrect.

Hazzanet

innovate wrote: »

I am no big fan of Metrobank myself, but surely this is incorrect.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/Global/Personal%20-%20Accounts/Cash_Account_IIS%2010%2012.pdf

Electronic payments can be made into your Cash Account, however, they cannot be made from your Cash Account

innovate

Ah right, sorry, I missed the word "basic" in the original post. And completely missed that veganline was talking about charity accounts. No bank is forced to provide charity accounts, and trying to (ab-)use a basic account as a charity account is bound to hit problems because the account has not been designed for charities.

Perhaps veganline could try a specialist charity account - google can help finding candidates http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=charity+current+accounts&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Hazzanet

innovate wrote: »

Ah right, sorry, I missed the word "basic" in the original post.

I'm not sure how clear this is made at the account sign-up stage, but I see a lot of DD transactions being processed in my line of work and MB rejects quite a few with the 'Invalid Account Type' code.

Metro_Bank_Representative

richardmk wrote: »

It would be good if Vernon Hill or Craig Donaldson perhaps could contribute to the thread and tell those of us who are having such a terrible experience what they are going to do learn and get things right

Hi Richard,

Thank you for this. We really value our customers and their feedback.

Craig would like to meet with you to talk about your experiences in more detail.

If this is of interest then please drop a note to [EMAIL="feedback@metrobank.plc.uk"]feedback@metrobank.plc.uk[/EMAIL] and we’ll get it arranged.

As you know, we’re growing really fast and customer service is very important to us. So if you have any feedback, good or bad, please do email us on the above address and our senior team will look into it immediately.

Thank you!

blackrat779

I took my two Metro bank cards to New York last week (credit card and debit card). No problems with either, they worked fine at several different places around the capital. The best thing was that the exchange rate was as close to the trading rate as makes no difference and no extra charges. Very happy.